This invention relates to electronic testing apparatus and particularly to a compact telephone circuitry testing device. The device is particularly useful to determine the operational status of telephone circuitry.
In the past, responsibility for maintenance of interconnect wiring within the user or customer premises resided with the telephone company. However, in accordance with recent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decisions, this responsibility has been transferred to the telephone user. Typically, the telephone companies will no longer maintain customer premises wiring without a service charge. As a result, there has arisen a need for a simple, yet practical test device which is usable by consumers to test for common telephone circuit conditions, to identify their location, and to verify operative lines.
The recent expansion of telephone networks has also resulted in complex and variable interconnect wiring installations. This has made cable identification and trouble isolation a more difficult and time consuming task for repair and installation technicians. Thus, there has arisen a need in the telecommunications industry for an apparatus which simplifies the proper identification of operative lines which are used to connect test and other telephone equipment and which increasingly utilize modular connectors. The telephone line test device of this invention provides an apparatus to identify particular lines and to troubleshoot such telephone installations. Although, test devices have been used or proposed which utilize modular plugs or jacks and which determine line status, these prior art devices have often been complex, expensive, unreliable, bulky, and difficult to use, particularly by typical consumers. Despite the need for a test device which is effective and simple to use by technicians and consumers, and which overcomes these prior art limitations, none insofar as is known has been proposed or developed. The circuitry testing device of the present invention provides telecommunication technicians and customers with such a versatile, compact, economical and easy to use test apparatus.